Healy-Rae hands over €2,639 for Dáil phone calls

TAXPAYERS have been reimbursed for the €2,639 worth of telephone calls made from within Leinster House in support of Michael Healy-Rae in a TV reality show.

The independent TD handed the money to Oireachtas authorities despite insisting he has no idea who was responsible for the 3,636 calls while he took part in the Celebrities Go Wild series in October 2007 when his father Jackie was a deputy.

Mr Healy-Rae took over the Kerry South seat from his father at the last general election after his national profile had been raised by victory in the RTÉ show.

Oireachtas officials continue to insist they cannot isolate the individual phones used place the calls over a three-day period.

However, they can state that none of them were made by Leinster House staff as their phone usage is logged.

When the controversy first broke last week, Healy-Rae said he would not pay for the phone use, but then declared he would as the matter was “distracting” from the main issues facing the country.

The deputy was unavailable for comment yesterday, but announced last week: “I’m the only person in Ireland that’s paying for other people’s phone bills. I’m a good, honest, hard-working politician.”

Social Protection Minister Joan Burton said Mr Healy-Rae’s removal from Citizens’ Information Board was in no way connected to the telephone bill controversy.

News of the phone use provoked outrage and an insistence from the Ceann Comhairle that the money should be paid back to the Oireachtas.